what about butane soldering pens they have a higher temp ratings and woud heat up alot faster than an electric. but the only down fall i can see is that you would have to buy butane from time to time and maybe replace tips ever so often.

My dad has one. It stinks. You cannot light it and you have to deal with an open flame.

i like mine but i guess its just personal preference i jsut like the fact the i dont have to bring a power supply in order for it to work

I use goot KS-60 (60 watt). It works well for everything. Motors, batteries, ESC (without overheating it) and it's so cheap.

I use the same one. Have been for 2 years or something. It works great. No need for an expensive one.

My family and I have gone through about 4 Weller guns and a weller pencil soldering iron, all of them broken. The pencil-style couldn't solder battery packs. We finally bought a Hakko 936, loving it.

http://www.cooperhandtools.com/brand...0and%20Use.pdf

I'm doing a little reading on care and maintenance. It looks like I need a new tip. I am unable to tin my tip at this time.

'When oxidation occurs, the tip becomes covered with a black or brown scale, which will not wet with solder - greatly reducing heat transfer.
This is commonly known as "burn-out". Burned out tips are usually discarded, though they may often be cleaned carefully with a fine abrasive and retinned."

Looks more and more like the problem is me and my maintenance of equipment. I'll be ordering a new wedge chip and give that a go, prior to upgrading.

thanks for the help.

I currently have 4 irons and they are all Weller. Like others have posted, bigger tips are the key for big surfaces and you want no less than 60W. When building packs, the hotter you go, the shorter the time you can leave it on the cell/bar.

I have a blue Weller digital ESD station that I use for fine work and always use the fine tip wand. My main iron is another Weller digital ESD station with a bigger tip but ther display konked out. I have one of those 80W Weller stick irons for a backup I keep in my box too.

If I had to buy a new iron right now, the Hakko 936 station is pretty nice.

I have the Hakko 936 station, I bought it used for a good price (maybe you could find one on the For sale boards here like I did). I love the iron, I'm using it with a 908 iron. I have a small tip for soldering wires, and brushes, ect. I have a larger tip for batteries. Great soldering station.

I have a weller 40 watt with small screw driver tip and larger tip for batteries.
I have had it for about 4 years and am very happy with it. I abuse the iron and had to replace the plug in iron. I order the new iron online at Wellers websit and Weller shipped the replacement iron overnight at no extra cost.

Weller's quick service is a factor to keep in mind when chosing a solder iron.

I must have done something wrong in the years that I have had this iron. My tip is all gunked up and I can barely use it now. I was also looking for what iron to buy that will last long and be consistant.

If you have the money, then get a hakko Mach-I. you can't go wrong with this choice. You can get 2 tips for it, 1 thin and other thick to cover all r/c application needs. I advice you to stay away from temperature controlled soldering irons, the ones that are bulky and are connected to station. The Mach-I only heats in 10 seconds and it has several tips that you can use.
Check models 920 and 921.

When soldering people neglect the most important part of the job, keeping the tip clean. Soldering iron tips have a nickle coating on the tip that allows it to withstand many hours of proper soldering. The reason Weller's site says to use a light abrasive to remove scaling from a bad tip is because you really don't want to hurt that coating.

After each joint, wipe the tip off on a moist sponge to get the garbage off the tip. This will keep that crap from becoming that crud that needs to be scraped off. Before I put my iron away for the night, I coat it as it's cooling down with fresh solder, just before it's cool to the point where it won't melt the solder anymore. I let it cool with that on the tip and put it away. When the station is restarted again, that solder and rosin heat up and it is enough to clean the tip and condition it for the day.

My Hakko 936/908 are over a year old and the tip looks new. When my station is sitting idle, I turn the temp down to around 200. The iron will ramp up fast from there. I find no need to keep an iron that hot for nothing.

You took the words right out of my mouth. If anyone dares to even imagine a better soldering iron than the snap-on... just don't, your wrong!!!

hakko 936 all the way best purchace i ever made.